1. Compare how the representations of gender in this poster and the Riptide music video convey values and attitudes. [30]
In your answer you must:
• consider the similarities in how representations of gender convey values and attitudes
• consider the differences in how representations of gender convey values and attitudes
• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the representations of gender relate to social contexts.
Knee jerk reaction
Both media products construct a representation where women are vulnerable victims, and men as the assumed violent protagonist. Not only is this a typical convention of the horror films, but it also reinforces patriarchal hegemonic conventions
Introduction
Representation refers to the views and ideologies of the producer, and how they are conveyed through a media product by using heavily suggestive media language to re-present to ‘show again’ a group of people, an issue or an event. Representations do not exist in a strict sense, but are a re-presentation of reality, and therefore can reconstruct the world in the image and ideology of the producer. To explore this idea, I shall refer to the video to Riptide and the poster for The Joker 2, and shall compare and contrast how ideological perspectives are encoded through representations of gender. Both media products construct a representation where women are vulnerable victims, and men as the assumed violent protagonist. Not only is this a typical convention of the horror films, but it also reinforces patriarchal hegemonic conventions
Plan
The Joker 2
- Women as performers, constructed through spotlight, makeup
- The use of high key lighting connotes pressure on women in society, and their visibility under the male gaze. Additionally, through the anchorage of The Joker clutching Lady Gaga, an ideology is also constructed where women are reliant on the protection of a man
- However, in both texts, a complex relationship between both men and women and mental health is constructed, where violent representations of men are confirmed through representations of mental health crises
Riptide
- Digitally convergent media
- Over 0.5 billion views on YouTube
- Women represented as performers, constructed through combination of spotlight, glittery outfit, MES of mic and heavy makeup
- Liesbet Van Zoonen - women are used as a spectacle for the pleasure of heterosexual men
- Women being presented as a spectacle is reinforced through the montage of blonde thin hegemonically attractive women who are presented interchangeably. This constructs a controversial and confrontational ideology that all women are the same, and conform to a specific stereotype
- Could represent the universal experience of women in a patriarchal hegemonic society, therefore presenting a sense of unity for all women ,and therefore a feminist ideology?
- An excessive amount of hermeneutic codes, constantly asking questions of the audience, forcing them to come up with their own conclusion, therefore creating a highly polysemic mode of address
- Additionally, the use of hermeneutic codes within the video encourages rewatching, therefore forcing the audience to engage with the video over and over, and therefore ensuring financial profit, with the audience hopefully buying the ep via iTunes
- While the female characters in Riptide are underdeveloped and interchangeable, we can still make sense of their background and personalities through intertextual relay. Intertextual relay refers to the relationship between audience and the media products they consume, and where an audience member will gradually understand more with the more they watch. This allows producers to make significant shortcuts when producing media products, as they can completely avoid any sense of anchorage, and rely on the assumptions of the audience. However in doing so, this ends up crudely reinforcing stereotypes and perhaps inadvertently reinforcing patriarchal hegemony.
- Heavy iconography of horror films in Riptide includes:
- legs being sucked under a bed,
- Woman being tied to tree
- The forest setting
- CU of woman being dentally tortured
- Hand being stabbed
- CU of scared woman with smudged lipstick
- Strange hand clutching woman
- High contrast, chiaroscuro shadows
- Ouiji board
- POV stalking shot - slasher films!!
- Voyeuristic and vulnerable representations of changing women
- Women running away
- Graveyard setting
- Waves crashing in an isolated setting
- Hyperreal representations of women in a variety of different time periods encodes the ideology that the mistreatment of women has been going on for some time
- Reference to non existent films (Velocite???) constructs a terrifying alternate reality, and a hyperreal simulacrum . The entire video constructs a highly postmodern address where nothing means anything, and the world is extremely confusing.
- The postmodern address reinforces the ideology that gender is complicated, and that roles and representations change over time. What it means to be a man or a woman is a complete ideology, but in this video, it is remarkably straightforward, even if the plot is confusing.
- Ultimately , the video infers that the world is meaningless, nothing makes sense and their is no such thing as reality. Causing the audience to engage with this philosophical standpoint therefore encourages engagement, and ultimately allows the producer to make more money
- Additionally, the video could encourage the audience to explore themes of sexism, and through combination with the song, creates an anthem to challenge violence against women